This invention relates to an apparatus for securely mounting a tank of compressed liquified gas in a vehicle and for continuously sensing and indicating the amount of liquified gas remaining in the tank.
While this invention is applicable in general to uses in which it is desirable to securely mount and continuously monitor the amount of a compressed liquified gas remaining in a tank, it is especially advantageous when used for mounting liquified nitrous oxide bottle tanks in racing vehicles. For example, bottle tanks containing liquified nitrous oxide are often securely mounted in the trunks of drag racing vehicles for piping the nitrous oxide to the vehicle's engine intake to boost horsepower and acceleration of the vehicle. In such cases, the nitrous oxide is stored under high pressure, typically around 900-1100 pounds per square inch (psi) for optimal performance, but as the gas in a bottle is used, the pressure can drop drastically and suddenly without warning. It is not uncommon for the pressure in a nitrous oxide bottle to suddenly drop to 600 psi or less when the bottle is running low (e.g., 1-2 lbs of gas remaining in a 10 lb. bottle), and at that point the nitrous oxide is no longer adding horsepower because the pressure of the remaining gas is below a typical threshold needed by a racing vehicle's intake system and the boost from the nitrous oxide starts cutting out.
Since the bottles must be very securely bolted into such racing vehicles, and since the only way of determining the amount of nitrous oxide remaining in a tank is to weigh it, drag racers especially are faced with a problem. Either they frequently unbolt their tanks and weigh them, which tends to be very time consuming, or they conservatively swap out nitrous oxide bottles before they are even half empty, typically after only five or six uses, based on estimating or guessing the amount of nitrous oxide remaining in a tank. Heretofore racers had no way of precisely knowing the amount of nitrous oxide remaining without removing the bottle and weighing it.
This invention takes the guesswork out of swapping tanks and eliminates the need to remove a bottle to weigh it; a racer can know precisely at any time the amount of liquified nitrous oxide remaining in a bottle without unbolting the tank and weighing it. This means that racers can reliably make more runs before swapping out bottles, which is a significant saving in time and money. Moreover, the advantages apply as well to racing boats that use nitrous oxide to boost horsepower and acceleration, and basically any vehicle in which a nitrous oxide bottle must be securely mounted.
Other advantages and attributes of this invention will be readily discernable upon a reading of the text hereinafter.